The growing computational complexity and data rate requirements of new multimedia applications demand that signal processing systems provide efficient and flexible compression and decompression routines. With a plurality of image and video coding and decoding standards available, the signal processing system may have to be flexible enough to implement at least one of these standards. Examples of image and video coding and decoding standards that may be used in various user devices comprise Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and H.263 standard published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The JPEG standard utilizes a lossy compression technique for compressing still images based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and the inverse cosine transform (IDCT) for coding and decoding operations respectively. The JPEG standard is rarely used in video, but it forms the basis for motion-JPEG (M-JPEG) which may be used in desktop video editing and digital video (DV) compression, a compression and data packing scheme used in consumer digital video cassette recorders and their professional derivatives. In the JPEG standard, an 8×8 array of sample data known as a video data block may be used for processing, where the sample data may correspond to luminance (Y) or chrominance (Cr and Cb) information of the still image or video signal. Four 8×8 blocks of luminance, an 8×8 block of Cr, and an 8×8 block of Cb data is known in JPEG terminology as a minimum coded unit (MCU) and it corresponds to a macroblock in DV or MPEG terminology.
The MPEG standard is also based on the DCT/IDCT pair and may provide intraframe or interframe compression. In interframe compression, there may be an anchor or self-contained image in a video field that provides a base value and succeeding images may be coded based on their differences to the anchor. In intraframe compression, each image in a video field is compressed or coded independently from any other image in a video sequence. The MPEG standard specifies what may constitute a legal bit stream, that is, it provides guidelines as to what is a conformant encoder and decoder but does not standardize how an encoder or a decoder may accomplish the compression or decompression operations respectively.
The H.263 standard may support video coding and decoding for video-conferencing and video-telephony application. Video-conferencing and video-telephony may have a wide range of wireless and wireline applications, for example, desktop and room based conferencing, video over the Internet and over telephone lines, surveillance and monitoring, telemedicine, and computer-based training and education. Like MPEG, the H.263 standard specifies the requirements for a video encoder and decoder but does not describe the encoder and decoder themselves. Instead, the H.263 standard specifies the format and content of the encoded bit stream. Also like MPEG and JPEG, the H.263 standard is also based on the DCT/IDCT pair for coding and decoding operations.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.